Comelec: No law, funds set for ‘hybrid’ elections
While Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Garcia said he partly supports a “hybrid,” or mixed, manual and automated election, there is no legal basis nor funds for such a proposal.
“The present legal regime does not allow a hybridized approach, and the budget was given to Comelec [by Congress] only for full automation and not hybridized election,” Garcia said at the weekend.
Moreover, he said Republic Act No. 9369, the current automated election system law, mandates Comelec to use automated election technology covering voting, counting, consolidating, canvassing, transmission of election results and other electoral process.
The hybrid system that Kontra Daya and other groups are pushing for needs a law.
“RA 9369 allows only full automation. If Congress wanted both manual and automated, they should have stated so in the law,” Garcia said.
He added the poll body, due to lack of budget, could no longer extend the duty hours of public school teachers serving on election day.
The Comelec chief reiterated the points in response to calls by election watchdog Kontra Daya, Computer Professionals’ Union and other cause-oriented groups to revert to manual counting in upcoming elections, less than a month away.
The groups urged the poll body to count ballots manually and enforce other measures because “the 2025 elections remain prone to fraud because of the untransparent and undemocratic automated system, where voters have no direct participation in the counting and transmission of their votes.”
But more than a million Filipinos in 93 posts abroad can start voting April 13, the first time the country will be using Internet voting.
“I hope we can at least get 50 percent of the 1.321 million voters because we are introducing Internet voting,” Garcia said in a separate interview on Saturday.
Of the 93 posts abroad, he said, 77 would use Internet voting, where Filipinos could vote through their gadgets, such as cellphones, tablets and laptops.
“This Internet voting is a huge benefit, especially for our fellow seafarers since they no longer need to dock at a port to vote because even if they are on the ship, if they have a cellphone, laptop, iPad, they can vote,” Garcia said.
Garcia said Comelec guarantees that their votes will be protected.
“It has passed all international certifications, all source code reviews and at the same time, we have also installed all kinds of security,” Garcia said.
Peace, security
President Marcos, meanwhile, ordered the military to ensure peace and security across the country amid the heated campaign for the 2025 midterm elections.
The President gave the directive during his visit to the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division at Camp Brig. Gen. Gonzalo H. Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
In a statement, the Presidential Communications Office said the President emphasized the importance of the military’s presence and visibility in maintaining peace and order, especially since the elections are less than a month away.
